


The Other Side of Midnight

by TanithPanic



Category: Casualty (TV), Holby City
Genre: Angst and Humor, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-13
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-05-21 20:53:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 16,593
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14922650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanithPanic/pseuds/TanithPanic
Summary: An AU story - characters who died in both series will still be alive here.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (This is a reworking of my story Healers and Slayers with some new characters.)
> 
> Okay, I’ve stolen the above title. It was originally the title of a very soapy TV mini series in the 80’s. My version has nothing to do with that story. My story is about the secret lives of a group of people who have unusual powers which some might call a curse. From Ben, Zosia, Caleb and Ethan the vampires to Jacqueline the beautiful but vengeful witch, from Matteo the reluctant werewolf to Rashid the unlucky genie, these beings have their own reasons why they can never work a day shift at Holby. This is their story and that of the humans who become involved with them – and the man who seeks to destroy all undead creatures, the despised Meyer the Slayer. Dare you read on? )
> 
> A/N I know Zosia’s more European looking than Egyptian, but then, not all slaves came from Egypt.  
> It’s not certain what the composer Henry Purcell died of and I would have loved to have used the theory that he went out on the razzle once too often and his wife ordered the servants to bolt the doors against him when he returned, which caused him to die of pneumonia. But my ‘medical advisor’, a very good friend who gives great advice but never takes the credit for it, has told me this was most unlikely to happen so I’ve revised that bit. Finally, this is set in a AU so Raf is alive and well, Ollie is still in Holby and Ethan’s character is as it was back in 2014.

CHAPTER ONE

A/N T/W: Violence, illness, single instance of cruelty to animals.

JACQUELINE, ENGLAND, 1660

The tall, sandy-haired man addressed the young woman who was tied to the stake.  
“Woman, you have been found guilty of witchcraft and in the name of God and Oliver Cromwell, I sentence thee to be burned alive and thy ashes scattered to the four winds.”  
The young woman, her piercing blue eyes full of hatred, snapped:  
“Do thy worst. I shall rise again.”  
Jaqueline had survived the torment of the ducking stool. Far from being a good sign this meant that she had been found to be a witch and would now be burned.  
“Blasphemy! Where’s the witch’s familiar?”  
A black cat was dragged forward by the collar.  
“Burn it with its mistress!”  
The cat, mewling and struggling, was tied to the stake. It had managed to scratch its adversary’s face and that face now bore a livid scar.  
“Why punish my cat?” the woman shouted, “You are no man of God to harm a helpless creature.”  
Ignoring her protest, the dour-looking man nodded. The executioner thrust a burning piece of wood into the bonfire, and the flames accelerated. Seasoned wood had deliberately been used so that the woman and cat would burn before they suffocated. Such was the ‘justice’ of the supporters of Oliver Cromwell.

It was over. The crowd had dispersed. The remains of the woman and cat were still on the bonfire, the cat now a mere skeleton.  
And the woman, unharmed and beautiful as before, glided from the bonfire, leaving the corpses behind.  
“For my murder, which thou didst call execution. For the senseless slaughter of my little cat. I shall move forward in time and I shall punish thy descendants… Witchfinder Keogh!”  
She shimmered and vanished.

 

ZOSIA ANCIENT EGYPT 30BC

The soldiers looked at the bodies of Cleopatra and her faithful serving maids, Charmian and Iras. They were not prepared to see a third servant standing almost insolently by the throne.  
"So you decided not to join your mistress and her ladies in death?" the soldier asked, his voice almost showing amusement.  
"The bitch never did anything for me!" the girl replied. One of the soldiers drew his sword.  
"Take care! Octavian Caesar has already hanged Mardian, the eunuch, for his treachery in defecting to his army. You would make a tasty little morsel for the lions back in Rome, after you've been paraded through the streets in triumph. The people would spit in your face and piss on your feet. Is that what you want? It would be a shame for a little beauty like you. Now my name's Maecaenas and I'd happily take you straight back to my home as a slave girl."  
"You're a very handsome man…"  
"So we have an arrangement, then, my little jewel?"  
"Oh we do."  
With that, Zosia, who was not the docile slave she appeared, seemed to fly through the air. She grabbed the gaping Maecaenas by the throat, and drained him, leaving him an empty shell of a man on the ground.  
The other soldier swung his sword and beheaded her instantly.  
As her head and body rejoined and she began to glide towards him, he started to scream.

Oliver Valentine tossed and turned in his sleep. The face of the loveliest woman he had ever seen had kept flashing in and out of his dreams all night. She was wearing an Ancient Egyptian costume – as far as Ollie could remember from his history sessions at school, but her features were more European. He decided that with his luck she'd turn out to be an exotic dancer. Out of his league, out of his price range. But it wouldn't hurt to look up a few nightclubs on the Internet…

Caleb Knight 1695

Henry Purcell, composer-in-ordinary to King Charles the Second, was dying. Tuberculosis was the diagnosis. His alternate choking and sweating was harrowing to watch, as his dearest friend, Caleb Knight, the beloved court singer, knew.  
"Harry, I beg you. One little bite and you'll be free from your pain."  
"And live as a cursed creature for centuries! Caleb… no…" Harry began to cough again.  
"I don't feel I'm cursed. I had a pleasant enough time in Ancient Rome, let me tell you. Please, Harry. Let me heal you."  
"Well, you can always drain me without my consent, Caleb…" again the composer strained for breath in between racking coughs.  
"I will only do this with your consent."  
"And I do not."  
He sank back, exhausted, closing his eyes. Then:  
"I want you to swear on your love for me, Caleb, that you don't wreak vengeance on anybody for this.”  
"How can I? If I could trace your illness I would be tempted to drain the fool who passed on their vile germs to you.”  
“It wouldn’t be a pleasant draught, Caleb. We shall never know – I came  
into contact with so many at that wretched soiree." The sound of coughing filled the air.  
“Please, Harry! Let me make it easy for you.”  
"CALEB! Are you asking me to give up my soul in order to die painlessly? I’m a little too afraid of eternity for that, my friend."  
The composer's anguish caused him to collapse and lie silent, and Caleb hastened to reassure him:  
"I'll not lay a finger on the silly bitches who attended that soiree.”  
“How did you know it was bitches?”  
“Because you, like me, are a ladies’ man. And you, like me, have had plenty of them in your time. But I cannot stay in this land, in this century, if I'm not allowed to avenge you. I shall travel."  
Harry forced a smile:  
"Caleb, you must use that voice. There are ways to perform without the people in the audience knowing what you are. Swear to me that voice won't die."  
"Ah, I shall make people well aware of my voice, Harry. I want fame. Unlike some of my poor brothers and sisters in misfortune, who just want peace, I want to be spoken of in drawing-rooms. I wish for people to pay to hear me singing. So I shall…"  
He broke off and hastened to Harry's side, and cradled the dying man. Then, tears of blood on his pale cheeks, he kissed Henry Purcell's forehead and went to let Henry’s wife, Frances, know that her husband was dead. Frances, gentle and unassuming by nature, had stepped from the room to let her husband be with his friend in his final moments. Now she hurried into the room, her face pale.  
Caleb felt her pain but had little to say to her. He said quietly:  
“Madam, I am sorry for your loss”, kissed her hand, and walked into the night.


	2. Chapter Two  Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More characters and their stories are introduced while some of the Holby staff suffer from bad dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for my Kudos! A/N: Sexual threat, violence.

CHAPTER TWO

"I am having the strangest dreams" Dr Dominic Copeland informed Doctor Oliver Valentine as they shared the same table in Pulses. Ollie just wanted to get back to his crossword while he still had a break. But Dom continued:  
"I'm hearing music in my head, constantly. Purcell. I bloody loathe Purcell!"  
"Isn't that a washing power?" asked Ollie flippantly. Ollie’s taste ran more towards Black Sabbath or Meatloaf.  
"And what do I see in my dreams? A guillotine. A woman being burned at the stake. Then, just as if I’m watching TV, it flips to a Victorian orgy. It’s seriously disturbing, Ollie.  
“It sounds like the kind of film my cousin would queue up to watch” Ollie grinned. 

Dom sighed. He should have spoken to Dr Dylan Keogh. Dylan had dreamt of a woman being burned at the stake a couple of nights ago. Dylan had found the details quite distressing and was glad his dog Dervla was close enough to cuddle for comfort. Now it looked as if Dom would be put through the same.

BEN, 1888

Another sleepless night. Correction, another normal night. A night during which he's returned from hunting the prey he needs to survive, to prowl restlessly across the floor of the apartment in the bedroom that he does not need, reflecting on what he has become, and on the mindless excesses of his past. He's committed so many of the seven deadly sins - wrath, lust, idleness. Not gluttony; food to him was an occasional necessity rather than a pleasure. Well, that is one sin that he will not have to pay for in the next life. Food had been merely a routine to him, to keep him nurtured, give him the energy to pursue those other excesses of his. He'd been more interested in joining in the latest drunken ball or party, discreetly catching the attention of a handsome man who'd had the misfortune to catch his eye. Then he'd bragged to his friends that he'd possess him by the end of that week... and he'd never had to hand over the money.  
Until he'd found Victor, and subsequently the torments of hell.  
Starting from his childhood. He was born Benjamin Luke Chiltern, son of an indulgent father, Jonathan, and an austere Swedish mother, Astrid. Between the Bible lessons, frightening tales and harsh blows of his mother, the hugs and lavish gifts from his father, and the unconditioned devotion of Tobias, Ben became a contradiction. A handsome exterior, the face of a fallen angel, with a slim, though athletic body on the outside, and a self-willed yet susceptible heart on the inside. Then when Astrid died of a sudden chill that turned to pneumonia, he was left to his own devices by his father, who seemed to shrink within himself after losing his wife. Benjamin had made so many wrong choices.  
He'd known from sixteen years old that he was more attracted to men than to women. He loved women as friends but could only feel aroused by the presence of a man. To avoid people knowing that he craved 'The love that dare not speak its name' Benjamin Chiltern had eventually become betrothed. He knew he would have to procreate children and that he would loathe the act of procreation but love the children, and had put off the inevitable by finding the wrong kind of friends. The ones who would hug him and call him pretty names but who would stab him in the back.  
"Benjie, you have to come", his friend Mark had urged, waving the elaborate invitation cards in his friend's face, "To turn down an invitation others would kill for..." Mark pouted, "It's simply rude! This is Count Dubeque's party, Ben! A wonderul Masquerade, where we can dress up as we please without being lectured for it."  
Ben knew that he and Mark would be at the Masquerade, looking out, not for ladies of the night, but for handsome young men.  
"You don't need me with you", he'd grinned back, "You hunt for your pretty boys well enough on your own!"  
Mark had looked ashamed, not because of his predilections, but because of his rank.  
"Darling , you know that I'll be refused entrance without you", he wheedled.  
"I promised I'd go with Abigail to dine with her parents", Ben countered.  
Mark's sneer was evident.  
"So you'll go and mince about over dinner with those two old fools, you and Abigail not even daring to kiss in front of them, and all you'll get from it at the end of the evening will be a chaste little peck from Abigail, there are going to be some of the most gorgeous men at this Masquerade. You owe it to your body to come along. Seek release", Mark hinted with a lewd wink.  
"I don't have a costume-"  
"Piss to that", giggled Mark, "The money you have to play with, you can persuade any little dressmaker to make you a pretty costume in a matter of hours, not days. You'll break hearts there, Benjie. Don't be so mean. Accept!"  
He accepted. Little realising the heart that broke would be his own.

Dom slammed his hand bad-temperedly against the light switch. Why was he having this dream? Was he expected to feel sorry for the man he kept seeing? The man was a spoiled brat from what he, Dom, had seen. But on the other hand, there was something in the man’s face, something in his eyes, that suggested kindness beneath the bravado. He rolled over and tried to sleep but hoped he wouldn’t get Purcell playing on a loop instead. What in hell was all this about?

BERENICE AND SERENA FRANCE 1792

Berenice Beauvoir, known by her fellow revolutionaries as La Loupette because of her wolf-like devotion to the cause of the Revolution, was aware her life was in danger as never before. Having been caught breaking into the Palace of Versailles, and with a pistol concealed within her dress, it seemed that the guillotine was where she would end her days.  
The guard who aimed his rifle at her smiled through broken teeth.  
“Such a shame to lose such a pretty, brave lady to the guillotine” he all but dribbled.  
Berenice glared at him. Even if she’d favoured men, this one, with his sweaty armpits and stinking breath from enjoying too many sweetmeats, was certainly not somebody she would choose for herself.  
He took a step closer and slid his hand into her bodice.  
“So lovely. Now, if you give me ten minutes of your time I could let you live, my pretty revolutionary. A quick session by the wall for your life isn’t a bad choice, is it?”  
Berenice opened her eyes wide.  
“Really?” she simpered.  
Believing his luck was in, the guard began to unfasten his trousers.  
“I’d rather wed the guillotine!” screamed Berenice.  
She saw the rage on the guard’s face, then saw the flash of fire and felt the impact in her chest.  
“F*** the guillotine. You weren’t even worth that” the guard answered, kicking her body before he walked out.

Berenice sat up. She wasn’t stupid. A soldier had just blown her heart out and she was still there. As she’d worn no protective armour she knew she was there in soul but not really in body.  
Then she saw the man screaming and putting his hands to his burning eyes. He soon died whimpering, but unlike Berenice, he didn’t shimmer or look uncannily beautiful in death.  
“Serena. Have you come to take me with you?”  
Serena decided Berenice might prefer to see her as a human. She smiled sadly at the headstrong young woman.  
“No, darling. I can’t. You’re now a ghost, a revenant, and I’m.. well, not. But we will be together sometime, my love.”  
“So what do I do now?”  
“Use your power as a spirit. Travel. Go and see the world, go back and view history, or leave when you dislike a place or a century. You have the world in a way, sweetheart.”  
“I’d give it all up for you, Serena.”  
“I know, my love, but I’m not allowed to take you with me. Don’t grieve. You’ll keep seeing me. But for now… take care, my hot-headed darling.”  
A kiss on her forehead, then Berenice heard a rustling sound, and felt herself moving through time, through space.  
And where was she now?


	3. Be Careful What You Wish For

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The amiable but unlucky Genie, Rashid, is introduced in this chapter, and we learn more of Ben's background.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I quite like Nikki and Meena but sometimes their constant squabbling becomes irritating. So I had a rather wicked idea.

CHAPTER THREE  
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR

RASHID, PRESENT DAY

Rashid wondered how long he would be a prisoner this time. He knew he deserved his incarceration. He’d fallen for the oldest trick in the world, the one that genies before him had fallen for, and genies after him would be caught by, until the end of time.  
“I wager you can’t squeeze yourself into that little bottle” the man had said after having his wishes granted.  
I just had to show off, didn’t I, mourned Rashid to himself. Now he was stuck in the vaults of this place of healing, where nobody would probably come for centuries. The man had gleefully put a stopper into the bottle as soon as Rashid had squeezed into it, and had flung him, bottle and all, into the ocean. The bottle had floated, and had ended up in a place called Cardiff Bay. Rashid had yelled until his throat was sore but soon realised nobody could actually hear him in the bottle.  
It was only because a middle-aged couple on their honeymoon had spotted the bottle, thought Rashid, that he’d not been left on the beach. The woman had put him, bottle and all, in her shopping bag. When the man had collapsed and been rushed to the hospital, the shopping bag had been forgotten and the bottle had rolled out, being put on a shelf out of the way by a helpful member of the cleaning staff. 

“We’re supposed to be working, Meena!”  
“Just a few minutes break, it’s not unreasonable, is it?”  
Nikki grinned round the old store room.  
“Hardly anybody comes in here, I’ll give you that. Five, then.”  
The two women enjoyed the silence. Then Meena jumped a little.  
“Nikki… I saw something move inside that bottle!”  
She pointed, trembling, to the glass bottle. Rashid began to pray.  
“Ugh, it’ll be an insect. Throw it in the bin.”  
“Insects don’t glow with that nasty blue light.”  
Rashid began to bang with his fists on the glass.  
Nikki and Meena clung to each other.  
“It’s a ghost. Oh God, I’ve seen my first ghost. Ooh, Meena!”  
Rashid gestured desperately to the stopper in the bottle.  
“I think it wants us to set it free.”  
“No way! It’ll kill us as soon as we let it out!”  
Rashid, having rested his voice for a few months, decided to scream out his lungs. It came out as a tiny whisper but both Meena and Nikki heard it.  
“If you set me free I’ll give you three wishes between you.”  
“Shall we trust it?”  
“Look, I’m in debt, you’re wanting to get a promotion, let’s trust it and see what we can get.”  
Meena sighed. But she gave in.  
Shaking, she pulled the stopper from the bottle.  
The next thing, both girls cowered under the bench as smoke billowed, and Rashid rose into the air.  
“Thank you! You wonderful ladies, you’ve saved me from my unspeakable incarceration in that bottle! Ah, the fresh air again!”  
“It stinks in here” Meena said, “But if you really can grant wishes, we’ll take you to Cardiff Bay tomorrow for some real fresh air.”  
The two doctors appraised Rashid. He was certainly handsome.  
“Let’s test him” Meena said happily, and before Nikki could stop her:  
“We want a couple of cheese savouries and a Yum Yum each from Gregg’s!”  
A flash. Meena and Nikki had the sandwiches and pastries in their hands.  
Rashid smirked.  
“You need to be more careful. One wish gone already on … Gregg’s?”  
Nikki was suddenly furious. Trust Meena to mess up. Between them they could have had so much if they’d planned more carefully.  
“You idiot!” she snapped.  
“Don’t you call me an idiot! I’m not such an idiot that I didn’t spot that Xavier was just buttering you up. Because it’s me he really fancies!”  
The name Xavier was like a red rag to a bull for Nikki.  
“You bitch! I wish you were dead!” she screamed at Meena.  
A clap of thunder, and there was Meena dead at her feet. Nikki was devastated.  
Rashid stood smiling, his arms folded.  
“You have one wish left” he said, “Choose very carefully. Money, your debt wiped out? The power to be the key surgeon here?”  
Nikki shuddered.  
“I just wish Meena was safe and well.”  
Meena reanimated, sat up, and glared at Nikki.  
“You fool.”  
“Oh Meena, you’re alive!”  
Nikki hugged her.  
“Well, ladies, I’ll be leaving now” Rashid told them calmly. He was just about to clap his hands and be gone when footsteps were heard.  
“I can’t be found here” Rashid said miserably, “If that Gaskell man knows about me he’ll have me making him Emperor of the World or something like that.”  
Looking miserably at the bottle, he shrunk himself and dived back in. Nikki pushed the stopper in and glared at him.  
“We’re taking you to Cardiff Bay after work and you’re going in it. That’ll teach you to make people drop dead.”  
A comment that Rashid found extremely unfair under the circumstances.

BEN, 1888

He'd sent a message to Abigail's home that evening, expressing his regret that he was "indisposed" and couldn't attend the dinner. He'd also slyly mentioned that he did not want her to catch the chill that he'd unfortunately been inconvenienced by, and more or less ordered her not to visit him. Then there was nothing easier than to be seen to be retiring to his apartments for the evening and nobody but old Tobias saw him slip out on to the balcony of his bedroom and climb out like a badly behaved schoolboy a short while later...  
Count Dubeque kissed Mark's cheek coolly, and Ben's with considerably more warmth.  
"So we have the Sun King", he appraised Mark's opulent costume with a mere sweep of his eyes, "And the King of Hearts."  
He stroked the appliqued satin heart on the left breast of Ben's shirt, then traced the same pattern followed on the long black jacket over the shirt, and finally caressed the heart-shaped pendant round his neck. It was a simple costume, Ben had gone for a simple theme rather than opulence, and managed to look stunning. The Count looked at the black curls, tied back with the red velvet bow, highwayman-style, and the small domino mask that sadly hid the young man's handsome face somewhat, even though the sensuous lips were visible, and thrown into relief by the mask, had a slight alluring curve to them. He decided to find a few minutes to lead his handsome guest upstairs so he could thank him properly for the invitation. Mark could buy him lunch sometime. Christopher Dubeque wasn't against the less fortunate members of society as such, they just had nothing to offer him and Christopher liked payment for his services.  
Ben's eyes moved over the room, appraising the guests, especially the males. He noticed one man who was surrounded by a horde of admirers. He was tall and blond and he wore a plain black suit and tails, but carried a small whip.  
"He's new here, try and get first bite", Mark whispered. The irony of that casual comment would haunt Mark for years to come.  
"I believe you are Mark", the man appraised him. But he quickly turned to his companion.  
"Who is this?" he asked, with a taunting inflection.  
For some reason Ben wanted to play games.  
"The King of Hearts", he smiled coolly.  
The whip lashed out, hitting him gently on the shoulder.  
"I am the King of Pain. We should combine", he said. It was a command, not a statement.  
He made no resistance when the man led him to an empty room and sat on the small couch, forcing Ben to kneel at his feet.  
"Victor", he said simply, and he replied in the same tone:  
"Benjamin."  
The formalities had been observed.  
They drank wine, and flirted together then Victor buried his face against Ben's neck.  
It was only when he felt the sharp teeth and Victor's strong grip, when he felt his blood draining and his heart actually stop beating, then restart, seconds later, that he knew just what he'd done to him.  
"You're a -", he began, stunned. Victor smirked into his face.  
"Correction, my darling. We both are now. Enjoy enternity, Ben."  
He wasn't normally capable of such cruelty but his hands went round Victor's throat, squeezing in his grief and rage.  
He knew how futile his actions were when Victor just laughed in his face and, wrenching himself effortlessly free, glided out.  
He prayed to any God who would answer him for it not to be true, please say he'd just lost consciousness for a moment, please say it was just a sick and cruel joke on Victor's part... then he looked in the mirror.  
But saw just the empty room, not his own reflection.  
He let out a deep moan of anguish, sounding like an animal in pain.  
Somehow he managed to drag himself home to try and salvage what mockery of life he now had left.


	4. The Lurcher, the Roundhead and the Witch

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ethan, Caleb's brother, is introduced. Jacqueline becomes dangerous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again for the Kudos. I hope the characters don't seem too random; the undead people all have a common goal which will be revealed soon. Warning: A threat to a animal. Possible violence.

CHAPTER FOUR  
THE LURCHER, THE ROUNDHEAD AND THE WITCH

HOLBY GENERAL, PRESENT DAY

Dominic Copeland awoke, sweating and even more fractious than usual. Why should he be dreaming of a gay Victorian dandy who'd fallen foul of a vampire? And why was the little b*stard so damn pretty?  
Dom hoped for several complicated emergencies that day to take his mind off those stupid dreams.  
He wasn't the only one.

“Have you SEEN this list of new people we're having here? Dr Ethan Hardy, consultant. Ben Chiltern, Band 6 nurse. Zosia March, doctor…"  
"We are short staffed, Dylan" replied the always reasonable Sacha Levy. “Both in the ED and here on the wards.”  
"This one looks as if she'll be trouble. Have you SEEN her photograph?" Dylan snapped.  
"Oh, yes" smiled Charlie, appraising the fiery copper hair, the razor-sharp cheekbones and the sensuous mouth with a smile.  
"Jacqueline Naylor, A new bloody line manager as well as all these other people to look after. Huh!"  
Sacha laughed to himself as Dylan Keogh stalked out of Albie’s, hands on hips. He had to wonder himself, why this influx of staff? Oh well, if it lightened the workload, it couldn't be bad. His attention turned to the advertisement for the New Theatre Holby:  
"For a limited run, direct from London's West End. Phantom of the Opera, starring the phenomenal Caleb Knight."  
"I might even manage to go to see that if I get time off", he mused happily.  
Somebody was making a booking for the production at that very moment.

"I'd like a front row seat for 'Phantom' for opening night please."  
The young girl in the kiosk looked at the slim young man in front of her. She had a feeling he might be handsome but who could tell with those dark glasses and that wide-brimmed hat?  
"There's a seat on row A, sir, you're in luck. That will be forty five pounds-"  
"Forty five pounds?" was the incredulous reply.  
"It's a VIP seat, Sir, with a souvenir programme and a free interval drink."  
"Oh very well. I shall be paying by card."  
"Thank you Sir, may I ask your name?"  
"Hardy. Ethan Hardy."  
"I assure you, Sir, you'll have your money's worth."  
"Oh, I believe I will."  
It would be worth that ridiculous amount of money to see Caleb's face when he saw his estranged brother sitting in the front row. Estranged by a few centuries, true. Much as Ethan despaired of the extravagance and probable lewdness of the production he wanted to see what his brother had made of his singing voice. Then he wanted to tell Caleb that the mysterious power that was calling him and others if his kind together was not a benign one. The whole thing was a trap.

The staff of Holby General Hospital had two new members that turned up for the shift that evening.  
The introduction almost caused the cardiac arrest of at least two current staff members.  
As Doctor Oliver Valentine was introduced to Doctor Zosia |March, he thought:  
"My woman. My dream woman. Oh hell, this is seriously weird but… oh wow."  
And when the woman returned his nervous smile, the fandango inside his chest became a tarantella that threatened to finish Ollie altogether.  
Nurse Ben Chiltern was introduced. He looked as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth but obviously that mouth might need controlling. He said with a sweet smile:  
"You can call me Lofty."  
"Er… why?" asked Dominic Copeland whose brain was thumping as hard as Ollie's heart.  
"Because I sometimes sleep in a loft. Like a bat."  
“Oh, hilarious. Let’s just hope you know how to do a good night’s work.”  
Over in the ED, their new evening staff were making themselves known. The dour-looking young man in the equally dour-looking suit introduced himself as Dr Ethan Hardy. Dr Lily Chao thought how attractive he might be if he removed those dark glasses and smiled now and then. Realising her own shortcomings in the smiling department, she couldn't help being amused at herself.

"I was wondering" Sacha Levy said hopefully, as the staff took a break in Albie’s bar, their usual favourite meeting place, "If anybody fancied a night out with a difference. A trip to see Phantom of the Opera with Caleb Knight? Drinks afterwards, of course."  
"Ooh, I wouldn't mind. He's a dish and the best singing voice since Alfie Boe!" grinned Donna Jackson.  
"Our shifts are technically all night shifts, Sacha. But if we could swap…" Dr March commented.  
"Not sure about that" Ben Chiltern said hastily. He added:  
"I have a few commitments during the daytime."  
"I have several commitments and I'd still love to go to see this. "Dr Hardy?"  
"I'm going already" replied the Unsmiling One. He added:  
"He's actually a distant relative of mine so I want to support him, naturally."  
"You're a relative of CALEB KNIGHT?" Donna was almost drooling.  
"For my sins, yes."

Dylan Keogh reached his houseboat at seven in the morning, intending to feed his Lurcher, Dervla, take her for a quick walk, have some breakfast himself and then sleep.  
He was more than perturbed to see that the door was open.  
“I always lock up securely!” he thought.  
He ran down the steps and into the front room. And froze.  
The red-haired woman he’d seen the photograph of the previous evening sat there, holding Dervla by the throat. In her hand was a wicked-looking carving knife.  
“Keogh.”  
“Please… don’t hurt my dog.”  
Dylan didn’t know how she knew his name; didn’t care.  
All he knew was that his dog was in danger.  
“Keogh. Your ancestor burned me at the stake. He tied my little cat to the stake and she died in the flames. My innocent little Tabitha. Well, I shall give thy hound a more merciful death. I shall slit its throat.”  
Two drinks, thought Dylan, I had two drinks yesterday, that’s all. I know I’m sober. But this… this scares the hell out of me.  
But there was only one thing to do where Dervla was concerned.  
“Look… let my dog go. Kill me but let her go.”  
“You would die for a hound?”  
“Yes.”  
Jac moved the knife closer. Dervla whimpered. She wasn’t sure what was happening but this stranger worried her.  
Dylan held up his hands.  
“Please. What my ancestor did to your little cat was despicable and cruel. Please don’t take it out on my dog.”  
Jac stared at him for a long moment. Then.  
“I shall spare the hound.”  
She put away the knife, but seized Dervla by the collar.  
“But she shall be MY hound. I am alone in this century and I need a companion. Come, Hound. We are leaving.”  
Dylan tried again.  
“Look… how did you get here?”  
“One minute I was burning and screaming, the next I was here in this century. I have already used my power to get a position within your hospital. I shall masquerade as a Director of Cardiothoracic surgery-“  
“-And how do you even know what that means?”  
Jac smirked.  
“A library and a spell that taught me major facts of surgery within moments.”  
“You’re a very dangerous woman. But please hear me.”  
“Speak.”  
“If you came through that gap in time then maybe your little cat may have come that way. Show me where you arrived in this century. We’ll search for your cat together.”  
“It’s worth a try. But know this: whether you help me find Tabitha or not, you are a murdering Keogh. And I will succeed in my mission to destroy thee and all living Keoghs.”  
Dylan thought of Rihanna and wondered how he could talk this terrifying woman round.  
He smiled weakly.  
“Let’s go and find Bad Kitty.”


	5. THE GHOST SHIP, THE VAMPIRE VIGILANTE, THE PHANTOM AND THE SLAYER

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More characters are introduced but they're slowly coming together to form the strangest night shift that Holby General has ever known. There will be more Dofty and Berena, but for now I'll introduce you to the troubled werewolf and the sulky Roundhead. Plus, Ben finds a way to live with what he's become

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and reviews. T/W: Extreme violence (mentioned.)

CHAPTER FIVE  
GHOST SHIPS AND VIGILANTES

RASHID, NIKKI AND MEENA, PRESENT DAY

Rashid knew that pleading with Meena and Nikki would only hurt his voice so he just resigned himself to being thrown into the ocean and bobbing about in a bottle for eternity. He also didn’t want to tell them that he wasn’t allowed to grant wishes for the same person twice. This pair were vengeful enough.  
“Give him a good throw, Meena. He deserves it.”  
Meena, fuelled by rage at actually finding a genie and only getting a cheese savoury and a Yum Yum out of it, flung the bottle as far out as possible.  
“That’s settled him. Hey doesn’t the moonlight look nice on the bay?”  
“Yeah, very pretty. Come on, we’ve got early shift tomorrow and it’s almost midnight as it is.”  
The two doctors turned their backs on Cardiff Bay for the night and walked k towards Holby. If they’d looked for just a little longer they might have seen a strange shape shimmering on the water. Moments later they would have seen something to chill their blood.  
The ship materialised slowly. An old-fashioned sailing vessel. And something was very wrong. Corpses of sailors strewed the deck. They had all been violently mutilated.  
And, in their midst, a tall man with wild dark hair sat sobbing in grief and remorse.  
Captain Matteo Rossini of the Santa Lucia had just devoured his entire crew. It happened every year. The same nightmare scene reconstructed. Matteo walking on to the deck as a man, then, as the moon rose, he became a werewolf. He ignored his crew’s cries and screams for mercy. All he knew was that he had to feed, and could not stop till he was sated. Then, as dawn rose, Matteo would resume his own shape. And he would grieve. Then he’d take out a revolver and blow out his own brains.   
And, five minutes later, he would still be alive. Wandering eternity in misery upon his ghost ship. But never finding out if Nina….   
Matteo wept soundlessly.  
Rashid, from his vantage point in the bottle, which had landed, not in the bay but on the deck of this doomed ship, had just witnessed the whole thing. He beat feebly on the glass.  
Matteo’s lifeless eyes noticed the bottle for the first time.  
“What the-?”  
He pulled the stopper from the bottle. Rashid came pouring out, and looked at this broken spirit that stood before him.

CALEB AND ETHAN, PRESENT DAY  
Because he had fed discreetly from the supplies in the blood bank, Ethan was able to stand waiting at the stage door afterwards until Caleb had signed countless autographs and batted his eyelashes at all the silly women. Ethan noticed his drawn look and knew Cal was desperate to feed.  
"Come with me", he whispered tersely, "I'll find you food and then we must speak."  
"My grim little brother!"  
Cal embraced Ethan, who recoiled somewhat.  
"You really don't like me, do you?"  
"Of course I don't like you, Caleb. We both fought for a different cause. You like spending money like water, and servicing whores. That I could forgive, but what I can never forgive is that you BIT ME!"  
"One back for poor Charles the First. I had to bite you, I was starving and your throat was available."  
"Charles the First was an arrogant-"  
"I too prefer his younger brother."  
Ethan snorted, then his tone became urgent.  
"Come with me, Caleb, now, before you add another sin to your list."  
"A hospital blood bank? You – you're masquerading as a doctor?"  
Even as he yearned to sate himself, Caleb had to laugh. Then he ripped open the container and gulped down its contents.  
"Ahhh."  
"Blood that could have saved some poor injured person-"  
"I believe a lot of it goes to waste from what I've read. Well, thank you for taking me out to dinner, Sulky, but I'm sure you didn't just come to me for that."  
"He's back, Caleb."  
"Back? You mean Meyer the Slayer is on our trail?"  
"Don't be so flippant. Anton Meyer has vowed to wipe out our kind and he's been seen heading for the United Kingdom."  
"Then we'll fight him."  
"Good luck with that. Well don't say you weren't warned."  
"What do you think of the food?"  
"Food is for nourishment, not for pleasure, Caleb."  
"Bah! Miseryguts. I sometimes wonder if young Benjamin didn't have the better way…"  
"Still a godforsaken deed, but it did serve its purpose…"

BEN, 1891

He'd tried at first not to take lives. There were so many suicides and murders in this quarter of the town that at his intention was to feed on those. The first and only time he tried that method, feeding from a young girl who'd been pulled from the river and had been callously left lying in the gutter of some street, his belly seemed to be filling with poison, and he had to crawl back to the vault, only just managing to pull the coffin lid over his face before he collapsed. He was fully recovered by the next night but knew that only the blood of the living could nurture him. It was as if this demonic existence was determined to make him evil.  
The next night, he was prowling as darkness fell, driven onward by the growing desparation in his guts when he saw a small tabby kitten scampering across his path.  
He loathed himself for the thought that flashed through his mind that an animal wasn't the same as a human being...  
Then to his shock he saw a small girl, obviously a little runaway from her nurse or parents, searching for the kitten.  
"Felix... come here, bad kitty!"  
He would not attack the child or her pet. He remembered himself as a child yet again, how he'd been fascinated by the drawing of the little cubs... but, if the silly little brat didn't get herself out of his way soon, he thought in rage...his hunger was growing...  
His teeth clenched and he realised what to do.  
He made a move at the kitten which froze in its tracks, hissed and spat at him, seeing something evil, then squealed and ran back to the small girl, who picked it up quickly. She looked at Ben curiously, gave a terrified little whimper and ran back to a nearby house, banging frantically on the door:  
"Mama!"  
A woman came out and pulled the little girl back inside. Benjamin, his strength drained, retreated into the shadows and slumped against a wall. His ploy had worked, to scare the kitten into running back to the child. But, Dear Heaven... How many more times would his sin, his curse, allow him to show compassion and restraint?  
He walked on, knowing that soon he must feed. And then it seemed providence was finally at hand.  
The man, middle aged and well-fed, was dragging the young girl, no older than fourteen, by the hand, slapping her face to try to make her stop weeping.  
"You've had the meal, bitch, and now you're trying to refuse payment? I took you to the best restaurant in the town, spent good money on champagne for you... well, you can pay me here, now..."  
And he pinned the young girl to the wall, under the shadow of the bridge. She whimpered in dread of what was to come. The man was almost salivating over her, Ben saw to his revulsion.  
With the grace of a big cat, he leapt from the bridge, landing on his feet, unhurt, as if he'd landed in a drift of snow. He grabbed the man, who punched him in the gut, which Ben could scarcely feel. But now the man, under Ben's iron grip, was punching thin air as if it was a scene from a comedy. And Ben took the nourishment he needed, ridding society of a piece of human vermin. He let the man's corpse drop, then snarled at the girl:  
"Run! Go, you silly little bitch! Before I decide I need more..."  
Gulping sobs, spurred on by sheer terror, she fled, her face ashen.  
And Ben realised that maybe this was to be his salvation. To only feed on those who deserved to suffer.  
In the next few weeks, he managed to rid the city of several of those who didn't deserve to live. A man who was punching a wailing woman, telling her if she didn't watch her mouth he'd shut it for her the same way he'd done in the past. A youth, well dressed and well fed enough, who was backing an old man into a corner in a dark alley, threatening to slit the old man's gullet if he didn't hand over the ring on his finger. The old man had refused, and the thief had been about to cut off the old man's finger and the ring with it, till Ben had moved swiftly and soundlessly, to finish the thief and snarl at the old man to get himself home while he could.

Meanwhile, in the Holby Novotel, Anton Meyer lounged on his king sized bed, and studied his notes. A nice little coven of them, living in a hospital with a convenient access to a blood bank.  
He'd have every last one of them.  
He telephoned the man who was probably the last vampire-hunting Van Helsing in Transylvania.  
"Oh I will gladly come and join you, Anton. Shall we say at the end of next week? There are two things in this world I loathe… vampires and Hugh Jackman."  
"Hugh Jackman?"  
"Anton, did you SEE that bloody travesty of a film? Now everybody who meets me starts saying "Ooh you don't look like Hugh Jackman, do you?"  
Anton, smirking, replaced the receiver.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A/N As this is a story about the supernatural there will probably be instances of violence running through the scenes but I'll give a warning if any of that involves animals or children. (The little girl in the last chapter merely got a bad fright.)
> 
> Thanks for the reviews and Kudos, much appreciated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Marsha Lindon is an original character. I love the fact that I've been able to make a beloved (and much missed) Holby character into a musical star overnight! Ah the joys of fiction.

CHAPTER SIX  
NIGHT SHIFTS, FAN GIRLING AND ABOMINATIONS

 

They had turned the last corner leading to the canal and Dylan was seriously worried. There had been no sign of the little cat. Dylan tried to imagine somebody who was a Director of Cardiothoracic surgery being cruel to a dog, and couldn’t. But he wouldn’t feel that Dervla was safe if that wretched cat…  
A quiet purring from under a hedge. Jacqueline, with no regard for her dignity, or the fact that her skirt was brushing the grubby pavement, bent down.  
“Tabitha! Tabby, darling, it’s me!”  
The tone of Jacqueline’s voice had changed. It was almost dripping honey. She scooped up the small animal and cuddled her.  
“Tabby, we’re going to live with this nice man and this foolish hound and we’ll all be very happy here.”  
Dylan’s eyebrows almost buried themselves under his hair.   
“It’s a temporary measure” he began hopefully.  
“Bah! When I am paid for my first month’s work I shall pay you back. Now, where is the best place for my Tabitha to find lots of lovely mice?”  
“I’ll order some cat food from Tesco. And some milder shower gel.”  
Dylan didn’t really see Jacqueline washing with his “Iron and Grit” shower gel.  
“I shall pay everything back. And, because you found my cat, you and the hound are off my list of Keoghs I shall slay.”  
Feeling that he was on a roll, Dylan asked:  
“Could I add a small child and a harmless woman to those off the list?”  
He knew he should maybe have pleaded for Brian, too. Right now he was tired and wanted to eat and sleep.  
“Very well. Now I wish to eat. What can you get for me?”

“Cook another meal!” commanded Jacqueline.  
“You’re never still hungry?”  
“No, you may give the food to the hound. I just want to see that wonderful device performing its magic again.”  
Dylan, too tired to argue, put another baked potato into the microwave and Jacqueline beamed in delight.  
“Round and round it goes. And ping! Ping! Ping!”  
Then she sighed.  
“Please show me where I shall sleep. I am overcome with exhaustion.  
“Well, you’ve been through a lot. This way…”  
Jacqueline fell asleep singing “Ping! Ping! Ping!” to herself.  
Dervla and Tabitha glared at each other. Tabitha circled Dervla hungrily and tried to find a free path to the old dog’s feeding bowl. Dervla growled at her. Dylan hoped the Tesco man would arrive soon.

Ethan glared at Ben, or as he was now Staff Nurse Chiltern.  
"You in this hospital as well! Another abomination!"  
Shut your face, Puritan” thought Ben, watching Dom Copeland’s backside moving delightfully as he strutted past the window.  
"Oh just blow him a kiss, Benjie, why don't you?"  
Ben looked shocked.  
"You can TELL?" he asked, sincerely hoping he'd kept his feelings hidden.  
"Three abominations in this place. Three!" screamed Ethan.  
"Oh go and play with your Peppa Pig, Baby!" Ben smirked. Ben was very au fait with current media trends.  
If the group had only known, it wasn't just Meyer and the non-Jackman fan that the Holby undead needed to worry about.  
Donna checked herself one more time in the mirror. She looked quite good and if things went well she'd get that gorgeous Caleb Knight's autograph too, maybe a kiss. She was pleasantly surprised to get the afternoon off although she had thrown in an extra shift the next day as a bargain.  
Caleb was looking forward to the performance. He'd asked his grumpy little brother to smuggle in something to keep him going until he could next feed. Then, a quick gargle with mouthwash and who could tell?  
Marsha Lindon, his co-star, wasn't feeling the same enthusiasm. It should be her name on the main board, not Caleb Knight's. She was as good as him any day! She'd take more rest but then that silly little Jasmine Burrows would have to go on and Marsha wasn't leaving any loopholes there.  
Ugh, now that miserable little brother of Caleb's had arrived. She withdrew, nose in air, into the dressing room.  
"Quick, hurry, I'm desperate!"  
Ethan sighed.  
"I couldn't get you any blood. The security guy was doing a check and wouldn't leave the blood bank unguarded."  
"HELL, no! Ethan, I'll collapse before the end of the first act! I'll be bleating "Music of the Night!" HELP ME!"  
"You'll just have to bite somebody, but not take it all, cover your tracks and erase their memory" said Ethan glibly as if committing near-murder happened every day for his brother.  
"Look at this! Caleb Knight, Caleb Knight, Caleb Knight! Not a word about me and I'm playing Christine Daae! Damn reviewers!" screeched from a dressing room close by.  
"I know just who", Cal grinned.  
Ethan looked disgusted but resigned to the plan.

Meanwhile, Matteo sat unhappily in his cage. The genie hadn’t been able to   
grant all his wishes. He’d asked for the genie to kill him. A sign had   
appeared in red lettering, in thin air: “Request declined.”  
“But why?” he’d asked, almost weeping.  
“I cannot kill you” Rashid read from the notes that had materialised, “You can only be killed by the person who loves you enough to free you. Now you’re a handsome beast but I don’t love you that much.”  
And then Matteo had found the courage to ask the question that was slowly killing him:  
“My fiancée Nina was on board that ship. Did I eat my fiancée?”  
Rashid summoned his power. This time:  
“Transaction accepted. Thank you for your custom. Everybody has to pay for their sins but now you can pay by direct debit! Contact…”  
Rashid had angrily skipped the ads and had asked the question that Matteo dreaded the answer to.  
“It seems your Nina was so heartbroken at being betrothed to a werewolf that she threw herself overboard. So, no, you did not eat her.”  
Matteo sighed.  
“I am glad I didn’t kill her. But it grieves me that she is dead.”  
“Wait right there! She threw herself overboard but was rescued by sailors and taken to a convent. Because she attempted to commit the sin of suicide, she has been forced to live forever until she can redeem herself by slaying you. So it’s good news and bad news. You didn’t eat her, but you can’t be together as a couple.”  
“Please bring her to me. Then she can kill me and we can both find peace.”  
“Sorry, friend. You’ve had all your wishes. But I’ll see you’re all right for a while at least.”  
Rashid had found a vault in the depths of the hospital and, with his limited powers, had found Matteo a strong cage and a regular supply of fresh meat. He’d scrounged every available market and butchers’ shop in Holby so that the good citizens were now almost vegetarians. Knowing how werewolves gobbled food, he rationed out the supplies to Matteo.  
Matteo was satisfied… for the present.

Tears were running down Donna’s face by the interval.  
"Isn't he wonderful?" she turned to Lily to comment.  
"They are all good except for that dreadful woman who is playing Christine. She is so conceited and it shows in her performance. But enough discussion, I want ice cream and I'm shy to eat it alone. Can you help, Donna?”  
"Oh yes!"  
As Donna and Lily went for their treat, Olle smiled shyly at Zosia who had managed to have the evening off work, and joy of joys, was sitting next to him!  
"It's good isn't it? I don't usually like posh music but…"  
He went red. Now she'd think him an ignoramus! Nice one Valentine.  
Zosia, however, said:  
"I usually like my music a little more raunchy" and then, to his shock:  
"We should discuss our tastes in music over a drink. I'm regrettably not free tonight, but tomorrow, if you can make it?"  
"Oh joy. Oh joy of joys" thought Olle's brain.  
"Did you enjoy it, Dylan?" he asked.  
Dominic Keogh had been disappointed not to persuade Jacqueline to go to the theatre but she had refused to go but had sat in the boat, fuming at the friendship between Tabitha and Dervla.  
"It's a load of sodding old tosh."  
Zosia’s phone vibrated. Ethan had let her know that there was access to the blood bank again.  
She was just wondering what excuse she could make and hoping Oliver’s wheedling wouldn't persuade her to stay and endanger herself when there was a huge scream backstage.  
Fifteen minutes later, an announcement:  
"Ladies and gentlemen, owing to the indisposition of Ms Marsha Lindon, the role of Christine Daae will be played by Jasmine Burrows in the next act."  
Not a groan to be heard from the audience.  
Caleb Knight was laying Marsha on a sofa and whispering to her:  
"You felt faint. You don't remember what happened to you."  
The stage manager was telling everybody how great Caleb Knight had been, catching the fainting Diva in his arms as she'd passed out and calling an ambulance. My goodness, her skin was pale! Bet the woman's on drugs, he thought.  
Cal gave one last look at Marsha's flabby neck where the bite had now completely healed, then heard his phone.  
Yee hah! Good old baby brother had managed to stock a nice take away meal for them all as soon as they got back to the ED.  
"I'm just going for a walk to clear my head", Dominic informed Lily after the show, who said:  
"Ask Olle to walk with you. It's very late."  
"Lily! I wish to be alone. I'm not a little boy and my head aches. I'll be just fine. Now go and see if you can distract Donna from that signed photo of that Knight fool that she's clutching to her bosom, or she's going to walk under a car."  
And the independent Dr Copeland strode off.  
He had refrained from telling Lily he was off to a cashpoint. He knew it was a mistake at that time of night  
But he a craving for Asian food – mainly because he’d dreamt of a genie the previous evening – and needed the money for the take-away.  
When he reached the deserted street and the cashpoint he resolved to be as quick as possible.  
Too late he felt the jagged broken bottle close to the back of his neck.  
"Tell me your PIN number or I'll cut your throat."  
"He doesn't want to tell you his PIN number and if you even think about cutting his throat I will rip out your heart and eat it in front of your eyes."  
"What the-?"  
"BEN?"  
The thug and Dominic spoke at the same time. The thug backed off, whimpering. It wasn't enough for Ben, who ran after him at a faster speed than Dominic had seen in his life, then leaped on the thug and drained him, throwing his corpse to one side in contempt. He wiped his mouth almost delicately on a handkerchief and then turned to the stunned doctor.  
"So now you know why I won't work day shifts."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More reveations about Cal and Ethan, Ollie gets a shock and we find out just what kind of immortal creature Berenice is in love with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments and Kudos. A/N: More violent scenes but hopefully some humour too.

CHAPTER SEVEN  
DISTURBED DOM AND THE VALENTINE MASSACRE

"You don't exist. You do not exist", Dom was backing away from Ben in self-denial.  
"I'm afraid I do. But I swear you're safe with me."  
"A- a vigilante vampire! You – you bite people and kill them. For pleasure.”  
"Not all the stories about us are true. Holy water doesn't have any effect. But I would never harm a dog. I once stood in the shadows, my belly aching with hunger, so that I didn't harm a kitten that was running around. Of course, that was back in 1891…"  
"1891. So you were a dandy Victorian Vigilante vampire? And what are you feeding on now apart from thugs?"  
Ben smiled which didn't do much for Dom's already increased pulse rate. He told Dom about the blood banks.  
"Ethan Hardy? That grumpy little blighter is feeding you all from our blood banks?"  
"You know yourself a lot of blood is wasted."  
"Well aren't you a good little boy finding a use for it?"  
"Let me see you safely back home."  
Dom gave an almost angry laugh.  
"Funnily enough I do feel safe with you and I took a risk with that cash machine. But I was hungry."  
“Oh, I know that feeling!”  
"I should report you to Jac Naylor."  
"I'm afraid she's one of us too."  
Dom sighed heavily.  
"Benjamin, once I'm safely in my house I'm going to have a very stiff drink. Or two strong painkillers. And I'm going to go to sleep and pray that this has all been a hideous dream."  
The next morning Dom arrived at work with a scowl fixed almost permanently on his face. He went through the motions of working until the beginning of the evening shift when Dr March went to him and told him to take time out to sit in the breakout area while she went to find him something to help.  
"And then you're going home to sleep.”  
Ben wisely kept as far away from Dr Copeland as he could that evening.  
As promised, Dr March went down to the pharmacy section and unfortunately Ollie decided to sneak down to watch her. He knew it was stalking and that he deserved a punch in the mouth for it. What he got was a lot worse.  
He arrived a little before Zosia, to find Jeannie, the dour middle aged pharmacist, being threatened by a man with a shotgun.  
"Give me what f****ing drugs you have, bitch. I just want this pain to stop."  
He turned the gun on Ollie.  
"Down on the floor, pretty boy. You've seen nothing, right?"  
Once more he aimed the gun at the shivering Jeannie:  
"Hand them over, you silly old cow, or I WILL use this."  
"You really don't want to do that, Sir." Zosia's voice.  
The gun was aimed at her, and the man fired. Ollie, putting heart before common sense, had thrown himself in front of her and now lay dying with a deep wound in his abdomen. Jeannie had mercifully fainted.  
"Now give me…"  
The man got no further. Zosia had snapped his neck hard. Ignoring him she knelt down by Ollie, who was trying to speak.  
"Ssh… oh my God, you love me don't you? This won't hurt too much and it's better than dying…." She told him.  
Then she bit him, judging the right moment.  
"Right, darling, don't waste time querying, drink this…"  
She had slashed her wrist and was offering it to him. She could see he was almost too weak to feed but held him so that he could take her life-giving blood.  
Seconds later he looked up at her in a mixture of resentment and wry amusement.  
"My dream girl and she just happens to be a vampire… hey am I one now?"  
"I'm afraid so. Oh… Jeannie."  
She knelt by Jeannie, whispering: "This never happened" in her ear.  
"Go into my office and wait for me there" she told the stunned Oliver.  
Looking totally nonplussed, the doctor did as he was told.  
"What the hell? I've never fainted on duty before." Jeannie had recovered.  
“I’ll check you over. Hmm… overwork maybe Jeannie? I'd put in for some annual leave."  
Ollie and Zosia sat on the roof, mulling over recent events.  
"So I have a girlfriend just like that. And she's a vampire. And she can erase minds."  
"We both can now, darling."  
"Can you put things into people's minds too?"  
"If it's a pay rise you want, you're out of luck, Valentine. They come from Hanssen and…"  
"Sh*t, a vampire me, a vampire girlfriend and a vampire cardiothoracic surgeon.”  
“Witch. Jac’s only a witch but she’s still good at what she does. There’s a ghost from the French Revolution around somewhere but she hasn’t joined us yet.”  
“Aristocrat or rebel?”  
“Rebel.”  
“That’s okay then. Wow, did you see that wound in my guts?”  
"You shouldn't throw yourself in front of men with shotguns."  
"Ha ha. I suppose we'd better go in."  
Zosia, with an impish expression, looked round. Nobody."  
"Come on, one giant leap. Don't forget you can fly now."  
They glided down to the ground with Ollie giggling like a naughty schoolboy.

"Caleb Knight saved my life" gushed Marsha to the press, "I passed out for no reason and suddenly there he was stroking my neck and telling me it was all going to be fine. And he's such a wonderful Phantom too…"  
Cal read the subsequent interview and laughed himself hoarse in his flat with the blinds all drawn and the lights blazing. If only the silly bitch knew!  
A banging at the door that could only mean one person.  
He strode to the door and confronted a glowering Ethan.  
"So you not only cover up your crime and get away Scot free but you suddenly become even more of a media darling? You disgust me."  
"Ooh and when you were back in the 1930's and you were Al Capone's right hand man, killing people all over the place…"  
Ethan looked at him witheringly.  
"I was in England during the 1930's, cretin, and it was dole queues and austerity, not killing sprees."  
"Pity. That Doctor Chao would make a sweet little flapper. You ought to get closer to her."  
"I don't want to be closer to her. I don't want to be close to any women except our kind. Human women are a liability. You see that pulse in their little necks and…"  
"You don't have to kill them altogether Ethan."  
"It's still evil. And you had to make me part of it. You had to bite me."  
Sick of his brother's nagging, Cal got him by the scruff of the neck and put him outside.  
Five minutes later Ethan, having walked through the wall, stood glaring by the fireplace.  
"And you should be sleeping now, not gobbling up all that electricity. Have you no regard for the planet?"  
"None whatsoever" replied Cal, turning on the television.

"I'll have to move out of the flat. I might bite my flat mate.”  
Ollie was thinking of pitfalls now the euphoria of being undead and in love had worn off.  
"I'll get us a lovely flat. Two en suite bedrooms…"  
"I can't afford anything like that and I won't let you pay."  
"You don't have to, my darling. I'll simply – umm – suggest to the Estate Agent that we've already paid."  
"And the deeds?"  
"With my memory and technological skills I can forge the deeds."  
"You're immoral, woman!"  
"Comes with being a vampire, my love. And the fact that I had to grovel and scrape to that bitch Cleopatra for so many years. I learned to be hard."  
"Zosia! THE Cleopatra?"  
"Yes Oliver. I hope you're not going to start drooling. If truth be known she wasn't that gorgeous."  
"Did she really… um… put an asp down her….?"  
"It was her wrist", Zosia replied witheringly, "Shakespeare decided to spice up her death scene a bit."  
"I shan't have any more fantasies of being an asp then. Dirty bugger, Shakespeare, wasn't he?"  
"Like most men. Like you."  
Ollie smirked, then a few moments later:  
"What excuse can I make to my flatmates?”  
"You're moving in with your girlfriend" Zosia shrugged.  
"So we're going public?"  
"About everything but the immortality. Come on; let’s go to the blood bank and pig out.”

Bernie, as she preferred to be called, glided soundlessly through the vaults of the hospital. She wasn’t sure if she liked this. She appeared to be sharing her safe haven with a lot of other beings. She’d already seen the unedifying sight of Matteo Rossini, who it seemed was a reluctant werewolf, stuffing raw meat into his mouth as if there were no tomorrow. Which was a bit stupid when you considered that Rossini had all the tomorrows in the world. He’d stopped gobbling for long enough to ask her if Rashid had found Nina yet.  
“Not a clue” she’d trilled cheerfully, leaving Rossini devastated and no doubt thinking that she had an easy time as a ghost, or, as she preferred, revenant. There weren’t many revenants who loved an-  
She stopped musing on the misery of her love life (love enternity?) and whirled round sharply. Somebody was giggling in the blood bank area. And if that somebody was human, Berenice Beauvoir might have another murder on her conscience.  
“Oh hello. You’re the spook, aren’t you?” Zosia asked between greedy swigs of blood.  
“I’m the revenant, Vampire. Show me some respect.”  
“Want some room at the bar?” Ollie asked Bernie politely.  
“No! What I want is for you two to get what blood you need and then leave me alone. Give me some space. Okay?”  
“Why should we?” Zosia didn’t like this woman bossing her around.  
“Because the moon’s in the right place; the time is right and it means that I can actually have some TIME with the being I love.”  
“You want us to butt out just so you can get your jollies?”  
“Our love’s not like that. It’s- it’s spiritual.”  
Ollie was just about to make a cheap crack about that when a rustling sound was heard.  
“Cover your ears and eyes!” screamed Bernie.  
“Why?”  
“Please! Serena doesn’t mean to, but she could turn you deaf and blind if you listen to her voice or look at her-“  
Ollie had watched Supernatural, and understood. He slapped his thigh, almost panto-like, in high glee.  
“Holy heck! A ghost’s having it away with Castiel In Panties!”  
He saw the light increasing, and stopped laughing, protecting his eyes and holding his ears.  
The Angel Serena landed beside him. A few seconds and she was in the guise of an attractive consultant.  
“You two! Leave these vaults at once before I smite the pair of you!”  
Ollie and Zosia didn’t need telling twice.

 

Dom Copeland pulled on his jacket, looking forward to leaving the problems of the ED to the night shift and going home and having some sleep. He was walking through the grounds when he saw a desolate figure sitting on a bench, his head in his hands, sobbing as if his heart would break.  
"Benjamin?"


	8. Star crossed lovers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the Kudos and comments. 
> 
> Ben finds an ally, and Jac finds trouble

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Continued thanks for the Kudos and comments. Warning: A hint of possible violence.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Dom sat down next to the griefstricken man.  
"Ben, what is this?"  
He expected a blotched face with a runny nose to be turned towards him, but there wasn't a mark on Ben's pale face. Yet Dom could see from his eyes that he had been weeping, that he was in torment.  
"I wish I could die. And please don't tell me you save hundreds of people from death every day, that's for humans who haven't had a taste of life yet. I've lived a long time Dom and I just want the peace of death; eternal sleep. But because of what I am, how can I expect that?"  
"I hope you're referring to what you are as being a vampire and not being gay!"  
"Yes, the vampire part. I see children, Dom, they come in and out of this hospital and we cure them. I see their parents hugging them in relief when they know their little ones will survive. And I ache. Oh I know I'm supposed to have no heart, but… something in me hurts. I'll never be able to father a child."  
"Adoption?"  
Ben laughed drily.  
"Ben the daddy Vampire? What kind of legacy is that for a child? This is why I chose to be a nurse, to heal the children I could never have, to give back life for the ones that I've taken. Even though I only took the lives of scum."  
"Well there you go then, stupid b*gger. Oh, come here."  
Dom hugged Ben close, stroking his dark curls. Ben's dry sobs subsided. He looked up and his eyes locked with Dom's. And they knew.  
"Ben… tell me something."  
How is it that your breath never stinks, despite the visits to our blood banks?"  
"A little human device called toothpaste. And mouthwash. And those wonderful tiny little sugar free mints that dissolve in the mouth."  
The triviality of the question compared to what Ben expected to be asked, suddenly started the nurse laughing hysterically. Again, when he looked up, his eyes were dry.  
"You know, if we can change our shifts, would you like to come round after you've – er – fed?"  
"Ooh Dom. And there's me thinking you might bring at least one container from the bank for me!"  
"I'd rather you visited afterwards" Dom couldn't help but be truthful. Ben just laughed.  
"Very honest. Are you off home now?"  
"I suppose so.”  
"Let me show you where I sleep."  
Ben reckoned if that didn't spook Dom out of dating him, nothing would.   
Go on then."  
"I'm afraid I have to hold on to you. Now don't panic. I have a strong grip."  
Dom screamed like a drunk at a filthy joke as they rose into the air.  
"Dom you are the last person I would let fall. Please keep calm."  
After five minutes Dom began to enjoy himself. Finally Ben took him to an old castle and to a crypt:  
"Here lies Sir Benjamin Chiltern 1858-1891."  
He showed Dom the empty coffin.  
"In the daytime I'm in there, eyes closed, hands folded, sleeping away."  
"You're a kinky beast, Ben."  
But Dom was smiling.

Nikki’s Diary

Well I think our Mr Grumpy has met his match. Lily froze him out today. She's beautiful (not that I'm into girls) but so aloof. Which is why I think Ethan's taken a shine to her. He gave half a smile just before the start of his shift. Donna is being a pain in the butt about Caleb Knight. She has his photo on the social events board in reception. Some joker drew a beard and moustache on it and she went bananas. Now she wants to go to the show again but can't get a ticket. She's been almost as grizzly as Ethan and Lily.

Ethan Hardy came in on night shift just as Donna was leaving, with Ben Chiltern coming in to replace her.  
"Good evening, Ben. Good night, Donna. You don't look happy."  
Donna, lip quivering, pointed to the notice board.  
"I must say it improves him."  
Donna gaped a little; Ethan Hardy making a joke? But this wasn't funny.  
"Look what he's done!" she wailed.  
"He's jealous" replied Ben.  
"Get another one" said Lily Chao drily.  
Donna didn't want to be rude, but said as calmly as she could:  
"But Dr Chao, you have to get one from the stage door and the show's all booked up. Caleb Knight's so popular, you see."  
"I'll get you one" said Ethan Hardy, without a smile.  
Donna's smile nearly split her face in half.  
"Can you really?"  
"I know Caleb - he's very private away from the stage door but there's a favour I can call in from him. Now please go home while it's not too dark, and stop fretting."  
Donna grinned and hurried off.  
"You spoil that girl, Doctor Hardy. I must say Caleb Knight doesn't seem the type of person you'd want for a friend."  
"He has his moments" replied Ethan and then a call over the intercom sent them both hurrying to Resus.  
Ollie and Zosia were in undead heaven, if such a thing existed, about the new flat. The two ensuite bedrooms were wasted on the frisky pair, who even showered together, but they agreed they would be able to have friends over. Their kind of friends, of course, the temptation to bite the living was always a problem, although the blood banks helped overcome this.  
Jac had already had words with Zosia about losing Ollie to the night shift.  
"Zosia, did you turn Ollie?"  
"There was an incident.. Some druggie held us at gunpoint, and Ollie threw himself in front of me and would have died, so I turned him, as you put it, to save his life.”  
Jac had been tense all evening but the tension had been broken by a drunk who was refusing treatment. Jac told him sharply to get himself into a cubicle and to stop being stupid.  
"Bite me", he'd replied.  
"Oh don't tempt me! I have some friends who could!” Jac had muttered, then had handed the drunk over to Ben while she'd fled to the ladies to laugh.  
“And who else knows about this?”  
“Nobody. I erased Jeannie’s memory afterwards.”  
“Good thinking, Zosia. You’re not as silly as you look.”

Ben looked round the flat shyly.  
"This is lovely."  
"Don't patronise me, Chiltern, you have a whole castle to live in" replied Dom, only half-joking.  
"A cold castle. This feels warm. This feels like life.”   
Dom sipped from his can of beer. He was loosening up nicely.  
"We shouldn't waste a single moment. Come here."  
Later on, Dom lay with his head on Ben's chest. It spooked him to think that he couldn't feel a heartbeat at all, but Ben was warm and his body heat soon lulled Dom to sleep.  
In the early hours Ben kissed Dom's cheek softly and went back to grieve in his cold castle.  
He heard the sudden command to avert his sight, heard the rustle of wings and knew Serena was beside him.  
“You can look now.”  
Ben looked up at Serena. She was in her earthly body and not as she was last time – a being so blazing with light that it would have caused instant blindness to look at her.  
“Have you come to destroy me?”  
“Why would I do that?”  
“You’re an angel and I’m an abomination.”  
“I’m a fallen angel and you’re an undead being with a conscience. I just wondered if you needed some company.”  
“Thank you. I – I just wish I could love him as he deserves, Serena.”  
Serena stroked Ben’s face.  
“Tell me about it, as they say in this century.”  
“You and Berenice can’t-?”  
“-An angel and a ghost aren’t allowed to share physical love, Ben. But at least Berenice and I can be together now and then. We can speak, we can kiss, we can do most things. Just not… well, you know what we can’t do. And any way of being with somebody you love is better than not at all.”  
Serena’s voice became brisk.  
“Now Nurse Chiltern, into your coffin and get some sleep. Lives to save tomorrow.”  
Ben put on a mock-American accent.  
“Yes, Ma’am.”  
“We’re a good family aren’t we?” he asked Serena as he climbed into his coffin.  
“Family!” Serena scoffed, then:  
“Shut those eyes again! I'm on the move!"”

Dylan was tired. It had been a busy shift. All he wanted to do now was feed Dervla and Tabitha, watch some trashy TV - Jacqueline was as fascinated by trashy TV as she had been by the microwave – while he and Jacqueline ate, and then fall asleep.  
His hopes were shattered as Jac, as she’d started telling him to call her, came to the door, her face the picture of smug.  
“Come and see what I’ve found!”  
Dylan’s heart sank. It sank lower still when he realised who was sitting bound and gagged in the armchair.  
“Jac, that’s my father!”  
“You’ve already asked for protection for Hazel and Rihanna, Dylan. Don’t get greedy. Now, which of us shall slit his throat?”  
Brian wailed behind his gag.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everybody who's sent Kudos or comments in the past and sorry for the delay. Real life got in the way a bit, plus the horrible heatwave hasn't agreed with me!
> 
> A couple of mentions of animal cruelty in this story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally an update. Jac has a visitor, Cal has a chance to be the good guy and Dom takes a drastic step.

Warning: Mentions of cruelty to animals.

“I’m having nothing to do with it” Dylan said in disgust, “In fact …”  
He stood between Jac and his father.  
“I can’t let you do this. He’s my father after all. So you’ll have to kill me to get to him.”  
Jac glared.  
“You asked for this, Dylan.”  
She raised her arms and shouted imperiously:  
“Immobilise him!”  
She waited for Dylan to be slammed against the wall by an unseen force. Nothing.  
“Well, I might not have my magic but…”  
She advanced on Brian; Dylan stood between them. Dervla, who hated conflict except between dogs, whimpered.  
“Dylan, I WILL kill you.”  
“Jacqueline Nailer! What on earth do you think you’re doing?”  
“Uncle Henrik?”  
Dylan thanked goodness that his heart was in good condition. A tall, severe-looking man had materialised in the room.  
“I didn’t bring you up to slaughter people at random, Jacqueline. I’ve had the most unpleasant time with a necromancer back in our time, trying to get to you to save you from your folly. He couldn’t trace you under your surname. It was only when I gave him one of your old hair ribbons that he was able to find you. Why, may I ask, did you feel the urge to – to ponce up your surname?”  
“Naylor looks much more sophisticated. Especially for a Cardiothoracic Consultant.”  
“Cardiothoracic Fiddlesticks!”  
“As for my killing this wretch here – his ancestors burned Tabitha and myself at the stake. I’ve spared this man –“ Jac jerked her thumb at Dylan - “His baby sister-in-law, his stepmother and his dog. And I can’t cut one tiny little throat? Well, actually, it’s a flabby old throat, but-“  
The argument could have gone on all evening if Dylan hadn’t suddenly sniffed harder, and then looked disgusted:  
“Dad, you’ve messed yourself.”  
Under the gag, Brian gibbered.

Brian had been released, made to shower at least twice, and put into a taxi by Dylan. Now Dylan, Uncle Henrik Hanssen and Jac were sitting in a Harry Ramsden’s eating cod and chips. Dervla was under the table with Tabitha, the dog cadging an occasional chip, the cat enjoying her small cod portion.  
“Jacqueline, I want you to swear to me on your mother’s memory that you’ll stop your vengeful pursuit of the Keoghs now.”  
“Oh very well, Uncle Henrik. I have gained many good things from coming into this century, after all.”  
“Swear it properly. Or I’ll take you back home with me.”  
Jac swore the appropriate oath and Uncle Henrik smiled.  
“Are you going back to your own time now?” Jac asked carefully.  
“No, you crafty minx, I’m going to stay around and keep an eye on you and your fellow immortals. Yes, I know about your little group of friends. I shall be staying at the Premier Inn over in Cardiff, but better than that…”  
Jac’s heart sank.  
“Better than that, I shall be working in the same hospital as you people. And telling you what to do. CEO consultant tops Cardiothoracic consultant.”  
Jac stamped her foot and managed to upset her plate. Dervla and Tabitha nearly banged their heads together as they ran to take the spoils. Dylan just decided he’d have two very strong painkillers when this meal was over, and skive off the next day.

"Fundraising?" Ethan looked incredulous at Donna's latest suggestion.  
"If you could get Caleb Knight to do a concert here for charity, think of the money we could raise for the hospital."  
"Donna, it doesn't work like that. I know Caleb, yes, but he doesn't do everything I tell him!"  
Donna looked crushed but just said:  
"Sorry Doctor Hardy. Stupid idea."  
If Donna had kicked off and thrown a tantrum Ethan wouldn't have given the charity a second thought. Her quiet acceptance won him over.  
"I'll see what I can do. There's a school hall we might be able to use if I can speak to the Headmaster. Leave it with me."  
"You're lovely Dr Hardy."  
Donna went to kiss Ethan who backed away and said hastily:  
"Sorry Donna, skin allergy. That's why I wear the big hat and coat."  
"Aw, that's so sad. Ooh, I'm excited now!"  
Ethan left Donna to her 'Oohing and aahing' and went to speak to Caleb.  
"Ethan! Get out of my dressing room. I'm about to go onstage in five minutes and drop a chandelier on Paris Opera House! Not to mention having quality time with that gorgeous little Jasmine Burrows."  
"I just want you to listen for five minutes. I'm trying to atone for my meanness, Caleb. Listen…"

A few seconds later Caleb was smiling.  
"Sounds so simple. You and I brainwash a Headmaster into letting us have his school hall for the evening, I go and belt out all my favourite songs, and the hospital gets its much-needed cash, JUST LIKE DISNEY. And it's my grumpy skinflint of a brother who's making the suggestion. Now please let me go and destroy the Paris Opera House and we'll talk later."  
The next evening Ethan was able to tell Donna it was on for the fundraising concert but had to warn her as subtly as he could about her crush:  
"Donna, he's – he's not perfect, you know. He has a bad temper and sometimes he's a law unto himself. You're a nice kind person and I just don't want you getting hurt.  
Lily Chao, pretending she wasn't listening, decided she was becoming quite fond of Ethan Hardy. Maybe there were reasons for his unhappy attitude.

Meyer and Van Helsing laughed smugly on seeing the advertisement in the paper as they sat in The Flying Scone, their favourite Holby tea shop.  
"In two months' time. Can you afford your hotel for another two months, Abraham? I think we shall have more success if we defer our visit."  
Van Helsing groaned.  
"Not really, Anton. I was thinking more of coming to stay with you."  
Anton's heart sank but he nodded. It would be worth Van Helsing's greed and laziness to get rid of the whole evil tribe…  
"All of them together in one school hall apart from the wandering genie and we’ll have him later. Madam Naylor, Chiltern, Zosia, Valentine, Knight and his sullen little sibling. We must sharpen our stakes and bide our time."

"I had a wonderful time the other night, Dom" Ben said hopefully.  
"You can't come again. It just feels…wrong."  
"I wish you'd just give me chance, Dom. I do have human traits. I actually adopted a dog back then, you know."  
"You WHAT?"  
"A tired old mongrel that was being chased by a gang of thugs-"  
"Bastards!"  
"There wasn't much left of them after I'd intervened. The dog needed some treatment, I kept my face hidden, took him to a vet's and had him patched up. After that he followed me everywhere and I bought him food and water."  
"What was his name?"  
Ben smiled as he reminisced.  
"I called him Hollow Guts. He was greedy but it was the kind of greed that happens after being half-starved."  
"And he wasn't afraid of you?"  
"Oh he was terrified. At first. Then he followed me around till he died of old age, poor thing."  
"It can't work, Ben. You can't change what you are and I can’t accept it.”  
Ben sighed. Dom continued:  
"And we can't have any moments at work because we can't work the same shift. There’s no future for us, Ben. Please just leave."  
Ben turned on his heel, and seemed to vanish into the night.  
Dom brooded all night. He knew that Ben was devastated, that it was one more reason for his eternal torment.  
There was only one thing he could do for the man he loved, and it wasn't going to be pretty.  
As soon as day dawned, Dom made his move. Ben had told him how to get into the castle and now Dom was cautiously making his way along. He prayed the police wouldn't come and question him. A man with a nice sharpened stake and a hammer would look highly suspicious and he was likely to undergo the embarrassment of ending up in the psychiatric ward at Holby. He wanted to sit down and weep but knew he had to do this. Give poor Ben the peace he deserved.  
His courage was almost evaporated when he approached the open coffin- "I'd hate to feel shut in when I awaken at night", Ben had told him – and saw Ben sleeping like an innocent child, hands folded just beneath his heart. Good, thought Dom, I need the access. Thanking his medical training for his knowledge of anatomy, he positioned the stake over Ben's heart and drove it down with the hammer. Blood seeped over Ben's white shirt; his body gave one small spasm and he was still. Dom kissed the cold forehead, and whispered:  
"Find peace, Ben."  
Then he fled, running blindly, until he reached home. He was physically ill, and then lay awake all night, grieving and brooding.


	10. The trap closes in

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As Dom grieves, the slayers prepare to attack at Cal's charity concert.

CHAPTER TEN

The next day Dom phoned in sick which was hardly surprising as he had lain awake all night, dry-eyed yet almost comatose with grief and remorse.  
"Hello Dom" came Donna's cheerful voice, "You sound in a bad way."  
"Yes. I'll not be coming into work today, Donna. Can you let Ms Naylor know when she arrives?"  
"Of course. Get well soon Dom."  
"Thank you."  
The run-of-the mill conversation was almost too much to bear but at least he'd got the phone call over with.  
Now he could continue to grieve.  
It had been a long shift for Donna; every time she had tried to chat to somebody – anybody – about Caleb Knight's upcoming charity concert, either Oliver Valentine or Jac Naylor had interrupted her and given her another job. She couldn't wait to get home, put her feet up and read through her press clippings and reviews about Caleb. Donna was fast becoming a fangirl.  
Dom, his head pounding, paced the small area of space in the houseboat. Then he realised somebody was tapping on the window. Oh no. Some well-meaning individual was checking on him. He wanted to shout "Screw off!" and turn his face to the wall, but the tapping was insistent.  
"Dom! I know you're in there.”  
There were only two occasions in his life when Dom had come close to wetting himself. The first was at school when he'd had to pretend to be a soldier and march round the stage with the other boys in full view of an audience of teachers and parents. This was the second.  
"Ben? Oh God, you're haunting me aren't you?"  
"The undead don't haunt, Dom. Please open the door."

Shaking but determined to find out how bad the situation was, Dom opened the door. Ben, looking no different from when they had spoken the previous day, stood there, a half-smile on his face.  
"We need to talk."  
"Understatement of the year, Benjamin" replied Dom, shaking a little.  
"You put a stake through my heart."  
"I wanted to set you free. Have you come to kill me?"  
"What for, caring enough to try and bring me peace? My poor Dom, a stake through the heart doesn't kill us."  
"Well it did when I read 'Dracula'"  
"Mythology! You'd have been better off reading 'Interview with the Vampire, Dom, that's closer to the truth."  
"So I haven't helped you at all?"  
"You have. Nobody has ever loved me so much that they wanted to free me, no matter what the consequences to themselves might have been. Whatever happens to me now, Dom, I'll always have that. And we'll find ways to be together, you and I."  
The next moment they were in each other’s arms and learning to explore each other all over again, until Dom’s stomach rumbled loudly which brought them back down to earth.

Dom’s stomach wasn’t the only thing that was rumbling.  
“Dear oh dear, how long have they left you without food?”  
Henrik surveyed the growling creature in the cage.  
“Three days. Rashid used to feed me but he’s disappeared.”  
“And who might Rashid be?”  
“A genie.”  
“We have a genie among our ranks! Wonderful. Well, I will bring you meat – what’s your name?”  
“I am Matteo Rossini and I am CURSED….”  
“Don’t be such a drama queen. I’m a ghost, my niece was burned at the stake, my name’s been blanked from the Hanssen family Bible, but do you hear me whining? Think positive, Matteo!”

Zosia and Ollie, now working the same shift, were enjoying a few stolen moments in the store cupboard when Zosia said casually:  
"Things have been happening to me lately, Ollie."  
"Tell me about it!" the amorous young doctor murmured into her hair. She reluctantly disentangled and said baldly:  
"I'm pregnant, Ollie."  
She looked at him uneasily but he was all but turning cartwheels round the room.  
"Um… will it be just the same as any other woman or…."  
"It shouldn't be so bad, and at least I can't die in childbirth."  
They both collapsed laughing. Then they became deadly serious. There was a lot to plan.

The weeks moved on and the day of the fundraising concert dawned. Ethan gave his brother a list of things to do, or not to do.  
"I'll be bringing supplies. If you get the urge to bite anybody, finish your song and then take a break. Come and find me."  
Ethan added sharply:  
"Don't encourage that little Donna. She's a decent little nurse and a good human being. The less she falls for you, the less of a wrench it'll be when you're finally outed."  
"Nice choice of words."  
"I mean as a vampire."  
"You've reminded me, I'm looking forward to the tribute to Harry. I couldn't trust Marcia with his music but I've got a lovely little music student called Taylor to help me.”  
For some reason Ethan had a foreboding.  
“Don’t you go flirting with Taylor. Donna likes you and a decent man doesn’t play off two women at one time.”  
“What century are you living in, Ethan?”  
“You mean, what century am I undead in?” replied Ethan with unusual humour.

"Donna, will you concentrate?"  
"Sorry Meena. But…"  
"I know, tonight's going to be magic and you can't wait. But these are patients we're dealing with, sweetheart."  
"Have you ever been in love, Meena?”  
Meena wanted to be cruel and tell Donna that her feelings for this singer were just a crush. But, most unlike herself, Meena felt some empathy for Donna. After the Rashid incident Meena had become less cynical.  
“That’s for me to know and you not to find out! Now, come on, cubicle five, or I might just find a reason to keep you late tonight.”  
Donna sped off to Cubicle Five.

Taylor sidled up to Meyer.  
"And you'll keep your promise? You'll let me go afterwards? After all I'm giving you a LOT of vampires in return for little old me."  
"Just do your job, young lady. Get Caleb Knight in a vulnerable position and we'll spare you."  
Taylor purred.  
"I'll go and get ready then. Do excuse me."  
She disappeared into what passed for her dressing room, turning up her nose in disgust.  
Taylor – real name Talia - had been a vestal virgin in Ancient Roman days. When she'd been found breaking her vows by being caught in the act with a muscular gladiator, her sentence had been to be walled up alive. She'd enjoyed her play-acting, sobbing, begging for mercy to no avail, and then as the two guards were ready to close the door on her and seal the room from outside, she'd struck. Drained them both and fled to Crete for a while, then Tudor England, providing some excitement for Henry the Eighth, until she'd been insolent to him. His sly courtiers had recommending burning at the stake. That was one thing she didn't want to risk, and so she had vanished from her cell in the night, leaving the courtiers very much out of favour. Then she'd found Holby and bided her time. She'd sneaked supplies from the blood bank without the tiresome process of having to masquerade as a nurse, and had found herself a nice empty flat to hide in while she gathered information on her fellow creatures. Reinventing herself as a music student, she'd insinuated herself into Caleb Knight's life with the final result that she was to perform with him that night. And after the performance she would hand Caleb and the rest of the tribe over to the slayers. Taylor knew their methods were useless but she decided that if she made it look as if she'd saved the other vampires from their clumsy attempts to kill them, she'd earn their gratitude. And get up close and personal with that grumpy but so cute Ethan Hardy. Then she could call in real evil from the past..  
Donna was desolate. She'd just been ready to leave for the fundraising event when an old man with a stomach complaint had thrown up on her lovely new dress. Jac Naylor, seeing her misery, hurried round to the late night shopping centre and came back with an even nicer outfit.  
"Oh Jac, it must have cost a fortune-"  
"Marks and Spencer, Donna. Now go and change, and then hurry off to your concert. You can pay me back each month from your salary, that way you'll not notice the expense so much."  
Van Helsing stuffed himself with everything he could find at Meyer's house, and then the pair were ready. They wielded their stakes and hammers with pride, then put them away into their Gladstone bags.  
Dom Copeland could have told them about that…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to everybody who sent Kudos and comments.


	11. A Concert To Remember

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The concert doesn't quite go as planned....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Violent Scenes. Thanks to everybody who's sent comments and Kudos so far.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Donna caught a taxi as soon as she left the building and just to show good things come in threes, was greeted at the door by Caleb Knight himself.  
"I understand you were the one who thought of this evening" he said, smiling. She nodded, too overcome to speak.  
"I'll make sure you're thanked on stage tonight. Now I have to go and get ready" Caleb told her, but left a kiss on her cheek. Donna all but floated to her seat while Caleb put up his feet on the desk that served as a dressing table and swigged the welcome blood bank supply that Ethan had brought for him.  
Just before the show began, Jac, Henrik, Ben, Dom, Dylan, Ollie, Zosia, and Ethan took their places in the front row with Donna.  
As the lights went down, Meyer and Van Helsing took their places at the back, their bag of stakes and hammers disguised in a Minions sports bag.  
Ben badly wanted to hold hands with Dom but was grateful that he and Dom would have a glorious evening to themselves after the concert.  
Zollie, as the Undead of Holby had begun to call them, had no such restrictions and were holding hands firmly.  
As Donna’s heart gave a little fhud, the curtain rose, and out came Caleb Knight.  
He made a sincere-sounding opening speech during which Ethan snorted under his breath, and the show got under way with 'Music of the Night', which seemed appropriate.  
"And now, my tribute to a composer who would have been more famous than Handel or Mozart if he'd lived longer – the wonderful Henry Purcell."  
He sang a stirring aria and then the school choir that had been invited to sing performed 'Nymphs and Shepherds Come Away".  
"Now I'd like you to meet a beautiful young lady, who sings like an angel. To sing 'I Intend From Love's Sickness To Fly in Vain', please welcome Ms Taylor Ashbie."  
Ethan's blood ran cold. Taylor walked on stage and there was a murmur of approval.  
"Who are you, you bitch and why don't I like you?" , thought Ethan.  
The signal was for the second repetition of the words 'For I am myself my own fever and pain'. Taylor sang this, clear as a bell.  
"NOW" whispered Meyer to Van Helsing, grabbing the sports bag.  
"NOW" whispered Jac to her allies adding quietly:  
“Dylan, you stay in your seat, okay?"  
Then both vampires and slayers rushed the stage.

Meyer lunged at Jac.  
"She's a vile little witch, kill her first."  
"You hold her down then and I'll stab her." Meyer told his colleague, who blanched at the idea of tackling the feisty redhead. So he should have been. Jac kicked him in the face, her heels making an ugly mark at each side.  
Meyer's grip on Jac was broken by Cal, who snatched the stake from him and snapped it in half. He then drove it into Meyer's neck and, disregarding his public image, drained him to a husk.  
Donna wept in confusion and fear. Was her beloved idol a – a vampire?  
Ollie and Zosia now had Van Helsing between them.  
"After you, darling" said Ollie politely.  
"No, you."  
"One of you bite him!" bawled Ethan.  
Zosia and Ollie drained him together and threw him into the wings.  
"And for the record, punk, Hugh Jackman's f***ing beautiful!" bawled Zosia.  
"Oh is he now?" Ollie pouted.  
"Hugh Jackman? Is he here?" asked a middle-aged woman in the audience.  
"No, darling, a huge axeman is on the loose so we're evacuating the concert" Jac told her, helping her outside.  
"Oh what's happening?" sobbed an old lady.  
Ben went over to her and gently escorted her outside.  
"Wait there, sweetheart. We'll see you get home."  
He seemed to fly back inside. The old lady fainted. The middle aged woman vowed to give up the Mojitos.  
Ollie, his paternal instincts to the fore, was cuddling a girl of about eleven who was weeping.  
"I – I sneaked out to watch Caleb because I love him. My mum's going to skin me alive."  
"No she's not. Trust your Uncle Ollie."  
The entire audience was in chaos and Taylor chose this moment to make her escape. She made the fatal mistake of taking time to commit an act of spite. Grabbing the terrified Donna, she drained her and threw her across a seat.  
"Zosia! Give me your lighter."  
Jac grabbed Zosia’s arm and shook her in rage when Zosia didn't respond at first.  
"Zosia! We all know you smoke on the sly. Lighter! NOW!"  
Zosia handed it over. Jac grabbed Taylor by the hair and set it alight. Not wanting the flames to reach the audience, she carried the wailing Taylor outside and threw her against a wall. The old lady, who had just come round, fainted again.  
Taylor, going up like a bonfire, managed to shriek out:  
"You'll be sorry. HE's coming. Try stopping him!"  
They were her last words before her screams and yelps of agony took over as she danced in torment, and finally crumbled to a pile of ash.  
"Is she really gone?" asked Cal.  
"She might be able to get back but not in that body."  
"Good", growled Ethan, "I did not like that woman."  
Caleb wanted to make Donna his priority but knew he had a duty to the audience and hiashuman colleagues to erase tonight's horror from their minds.  
Dylan sat inside, hands on hips, trying not to show relief that his friends were all fine.  
Ollie had gone over to the little girl again.  
"Come on runaway, let's get you home before Mum knows you've gone."  
He lifted her, and touching her forehead, murmured:  
"You had a wonderful time and Caleb Knight gave you a kiss afterwards, okay?"  
Ben was taking care of his old lady.  
"Come on, gorgeous. This way."  
As they flew towards her home, he intoned:  
"You had a good time but the show ended earlier than you'd expected. You went to the last of the Bingo, and you won…" he stopped at a deserted cashpoint and used his knowledge to find a pin number and extract a wad of notes, which he placed in the old lady's bag. Ben saw no harm in sneaking cash from the account of an obnoxious local politician.  
Cal himself was almost weeping as he looked at Donna. He didn’t want to do this, hut Donna would be dead in seconds if he didn’t. He cut his wrist, and, shaking Donna gently, whispered:  
“Drink my blood. I’ll explain later. You could die if you don’t drink, Suck from my wrist, that;s a good girl. There you go.”  
Donna’s eyes were big with confusion and misery. Cal felt his undead heart breaking for her. He whispered to her:  
"You got a standing ovation for organising the concert and I am so proud of you."  
"Why do you always look so happy when you're lying?" growled Ethan.  
Donna sat up and sighed.  
“You can’t hypnotise me, Cal. I’m a vampire now. I’ll just have to make the best of a bad job, wont I?”  
“How do you know-“  
“I suddenly know a lot of things now you’ve turned me” Donna sighed unhappily  
"Oh Donna, sweetheart, I am so sorry."  
"I'm not. Now I don't have to worry about all kinds of things.”  
She shivered a little.  
"Will I like blood, though? That's the only thing worrying me."  
"Like it? Girl, you'll learn to love it" Cal grinned.  
He wasn’t so pleasant about Taylor.  
"That bitch ruined my Purcell tribute. I'm glad she's toast", he fumed.  
"What did she mean about HIM coming? Did she mean the devil?" whispered Ethan.  
Jac shook her head.  
"No but almost as bad. Somebody from another time has got through the time zone when one of us moved forward in history. And from the sound of it it isn't Santa Claus."  
Dylan came over to her.  
"That concert seemed to whip by, don't you think?"  
"My concerts always do" chipped in Cal with a self satisfied smirk.  
"So the hospital didn't make a penny?" Dom asked afterwards as he cuddled with Ben later.  
“Not officially. But Holby General is going to receive a nice fat donation from a mean little git that calls himself an MP."  
"You filthy little bandit, Chiltern" whispered Dom, stroking Ben gently.  
But at the back of Ben's mind, and the minds of all the other Holby undead, they knew the threat of some evil spirit coming through the gap in space and time was to be taken very seriously.


End file.
